5 classic case acceptance mistakes (Part 3)

Watching dentists talk with patients about treatment there are a number of mistakes that I see made over and over again.

Mistake #3 — Being wishy washy

Imagine that you visited your doctor and they told you that your blood pressure was a "tiny bit high" and that "we might have to one day perhaps consider putting you on blood pressure medication".

You'd be confused and rightly so. Do you need blood pressure meds or not?

You might think that I'm being humorous, yet, so often I have heard dentists say to patients that they have a "tiny crack in the tooth" and that "we might have to one day perhaps consider putting a crown on that tooth".

A friend of mine was recently given this type of wishy washy advice and he called me to ask: "Does that mean I need a crown or not?" The answer was that he almost certainly did but it was impossible to say for sure because of how his dentist waffled on.

So, rule #3 is: Make your advice to patients crystal clear and do not shroud it in wishy washy babble.